Description

Changes the permissions of a file or all files inside specified
directories. Right now it has effect only under Unix or NonStop Kernel (Tandem).
The permissions are also UNIX style, like the argument for the chmod command.

See the section on directory based
tasks, on how the inclusion/exclusion of files works, and how to
write patterns.

This task holds an implicit FileSet and supports all of
FileSet's attributes and nested elements directly. More sets can be
specified using nested <fileset> or
<dirset> (since Apache Ant 1.6) elements.

By default this task will use a single invocation of the underlying
chmod command. If you are working on a large number of files this may
result in a command line that is too long for your operating system.
If you encounter such problems, you should set the maxparallel
attribute of this task to a non-zero value. The number to use highly
depends on the length of your file names (the depth of your directory
tree) and your operating system, so you'll have to experiment a
little. POSIX recommends command line length limits of at least 4096
characters, this may give you an approximation for the number you
could use as initial value for these experiments.

By default this task won't do anything unless it detects it is
running on a Unix system. If you know for sure that you have a
"chmod" executable on your PATH that is command line compatible with
the Unix command, you can use the task's os attribute and set its
value to your current os.

Parameters

Attribute

Description

Required

file

the file or single directory of which the permissions
must be changed.

exactly one of the two or nested <fileset/list> elements.

dir

the directory which holds the files whose permissions
must be changed.Note: for backwards compatibility
reasons <chmod dir="some-dir"/> will
only change the permissions on "some-dir" but not recurse into
it, unless you also specify any patterns.

perm

the new permissions.

Yes

includes

comma- or space-separated list of patterns of files that must be
included.

No

excludes

comma- or space-separated list of patterns of files that must be
excluded. No files (except default excludes) are excluded when omitted.

No

defaultexcludes

indicates whether default excludes should be used or not
("yes"/"no"). Default excludes are used when omitted.

No

parallel

process all specified files using a single
chmod command. Defaults to true.

No

type

One of file, dir or
both. If set to file, only the permissions of
plain files are going to be changed. If set to dir, only
the directories are considered.Note: The type attribute does not apply to
nested dirsets - dirsets always implicitly
assume type to be dir.

No, default is file

maxparallel

Limit the amount of parallelism by passing at
most this many sourcefiles at once. Set it to <= 0 for
unlimited. Defaults to unlimited. Since Ant 1.6.

No

verbose

Whether to print a summary after execution or not.
Defaults to false. Since Ant 1.6.

makes all files below shared/sources1 (except those
below any directory named trial) writable for members of the same
group on a UNIX system. In addition all files belonging to a FileSet
with idother.shared.sources get the same
permissions.

keeps non-owners from touching cgi scripts, files with a .old
extension or directories beginning with private_. A directory
ending in .old or a file beginning with private_ would remain
unaffected.

Note on maxparallel attribute

Some shells have a limit of the number of characters that
a command line may contain.
This maximum limit varies from shell to shell and from operating
system to operating system.
If one has a large number of files to change mode on, consider
using the maxparallel attribute. For example
when using AIX and the limit is reached, the system responds
with a warning: "Warning:
UNIXProcess.forkAndExec native error: The parameter or environment lists
are too long". A value of about 300 seems to result in a
command line that is acceptable.